S-6. Massive Alien Death War!!

The Soviet Gravity Frame Carrier Radiolaria was shaped rather like an arrowhead. The top and bottom of the arrowhead bristled with all manner of antenna and artillery cannons, and from the back sprouted a half-dozen gravity drive radiator fins. The central axis was dominated by a twin-barreled electromagnetic linear accelerator that ran the full length of the ship, reaching from the hanger bay just afore the engines to the pointed tip of the bow, where it opened into space. It was out of this accelerator that 1st Lieutenant Maurice Spiteri, Miette and myself were blasted, joining 2nd Lieutenants Sabina and Genevi Giacosa who were already flying a patrol pattern around the ship. With our four units arranged in a diamond formation, we rocketed towards the incoming Sarcophage cruiser.

I noticed, with some indignation, that the other three pilots were flying Gravity Frames with a much newer, sleeker design than my own. Theirs bore a resemblance to giant robot muscle cars, with angular and flowing lines, more powerful nuclear reactors and higher-yield weaponry. I was more like a busted old pickup truck, under-powered and squarish and in desperate need of paint. I could almost hear my engines backfiring!

Geh! Whatever, I’m not jealous! Their Gravity Frames may be all spiffy-looking, but I bet they don’t have an adorable AI installed! I had my avatar strike a cute pose, holding one hand horizontally in front of my eyes while making a victory sign and winking.

Miette, who was watching me via our private video chat screen, facepalmed. “Sveta… what…”

“Ehehehe, sorry.” I said bashfully.

“Sheesh, you’re too carefree. Please try to take this seriously?”

“Wahahaha, I totally am! I am one million percent serious!” I responded rambunctiously.

Miette made a pained expression. “Right. Regarding that, are you able to link to the other three Gravity Frame computers okay?”

I pinged each one to test. “Yup!”

“Good. Do you think you could collate all four units’ sensor data together and rebroadcast it? In a full-strength squadron we usually have a dedicated CIC unit do this, but with your advanced processors it should be easy.”

“Oh! Sure thing!” I said. I opened a data connection to each of the Gravity Frames and quickly merged all the sensor data together, error-checking each unit’s readings against the others, and produced an enhanced and corrected amalgam. I overrode my own cockpit projection with the new information. “There ya go! Does that look good?”

“Perfect.” Miette opened a video comm to the other three units. “Hey, everyone. I just discovered this Frame’s got some old CIC equipment on board. It’s able to collate our sensor data and produce a combined spectrospherical image. I’m sending the updated data now.” She nodded to me, and I transmitted the package to the other three Gravity Frames.

Nice cover story, Miette!

“Oy, don’t pull our legs, Miette.” Sabina complained. “Your Frame doesn’t have any… whoa, this data’s pretty good?!” She eyed my pilot suspiciously, but Miette ignored the scrutiny.

“Thanks, Miette.” Maurice said, jumping in. “Any advantage in this battle is welcome.” His tone and expression made it clear he was telling Sabina not to look a gift horse in the mouth. She just tilted her head and stared, still quizzical.

Sabina’s sister, Genevi, took advantage of the pause to shyly add, “Th-Thanks, Miette.” Her gaze was cast downward and she seemed to fidget as she spoke.

Ah, she’s the shy one! Those mannerisms are incredibly cute! Although her spunky sister’s cute too, in a different way…

Maurice continued. “Since your Frame’s computer can do the heavy lifting, let’s maintain maximum bandwidth on open data links. If that fancy computer can calculate us a firing solution on the cruiser, we can get in and out faster than a lubed-up seal at an ice rink.”

Everyone groaned at that rather belabored and confused metaphor. I was wondering what exactly you’d lube the seal with. Vasoline? Goose grease? While I pondered that entertaining but bizarre mental image, I began to draw up targeting algorithms and plug data into them.

Parallel processing sure is convenient, huh? I sure was lucky to get reborn as a robot! With this, I can help in the battle even if I’m no good at piloting! I thought proudly as we hurtled towards certain death.

*****

When we were about halfway to the Sarcophage cruiser, radio contact with the Radiolaria dropped out completely due to jamming. We could still communicate with the ship at a much lower bandwidth via laser light pulses, but even those would become useless as we approached the spacetime distortions caused by the enemy's gravity drives. Our own transmitters were powerful enough to keep the video, audio and data links between our Frames going if we were close by to one another, but those would drop out too if we spread too far apart.

As we drew within visual range of the Sarcophage cruiser I got my first good look at it. The shape resembled the tapered hexagonal outline of a coffin, rendered in a sheer black obsidian-like material. Intricate lines of red glowing energy covered its hull, and it was wrapped in organic tentacles, making it look like it was losing a wrestling match with an octopus. Each of the tentacles sprouted dozens of spines, three times larger than the ones me and Miette had so desperately dodged in our earlier battle.

Bluh! That looks incredibly creepy! I thought. If I were still human, I would have retched.

Surrounding the cruiser were twenty-two escorts, like the smaller units we had fought earlier. Because they had approximately the same size and maneuverability as a Gravity Frame, they were referred to as frame-class. Eight of them were the spiked flesh-ball anemones known as spineballs, and fourteen were the teeth-hand-eyeball grotesqueries known as clawteeth. Sensing our presence, the cruiser’s escort of space monsters began to move towards us.

Maurice spoke up, his voice projecting authority. “Engage! All squad members, cover your assigned quadrants and perform thinning! If the cruiser starts firing, pull back and regroup into defensive formation!”

Everyone’s response rang out in unison.

“Yup.”

“R-Roger that.”

“Aye-aye!”

Don’t die. I added silently.

I divided the semispherical space ahead of us into four quadrants, color-coding each one based on the pilot assigned to it, and outlined each enemy creature in a color corresponding to their quadrant. I synced all four cockpits with the update, hoping the enhanced tactical display would help each pilot keep track of their targets. I heard Sabina let out a gasp of surprise over the comm as the displays updated.

“This data… it’s incredible! There’s no way…”

She’s still suspicious, huh? I should be careful not to stand out too much. Gah, whatever, I’m just gonna focus on the battle ahead!

Before the spineballs could get in range to let off their volleys, all four pilots opened fire in sync, laying down both suppressing fire with their handheld positron rifles and more powerful blasts with their shoulder-mounted cannons. I felt my pistons and servos rumble with the recoil as blistering beams of death spewed forth from me towards the enemy.

I made minor adjustments to my gravity fields every microsecond to minimize the recoil and keep Miette’s shooting accurate. It must have worked, because she managed to take down two of the units in her quadrant. The only other pilot who managed a kill in the opening volley was Maurice, who seemed to be excellent at leading his targets.

As the enemies drew closer, the spineballs let loose their projectiles and the pilots turned their suppressing fire to intercept them. Once more, I color-coded each spine to indicate which pilot it was targeting. I noticed some spineballs assigned to one pilot were firing off volleys targeting another pilot, so I switched the colored outline of those projectiles accordingly as soon as they left their mother craft.

The battlefield had become utter chaos now, with plasma and flesh flying everywhere. I tried to manage the combat data to the best of my abilities to keep each pilots’ vision focused on their targets, but I noticed with increasing admiration how their focus did not waver even during the crazy melee playing out around them. It was in that moment that a rather stark truth struck me.

These people really are from a different world from me. They’re so intense, so focused. Despite being centimeters away from death, they’re calm.

This is what it means to be a warrior, huh?

I noticed several single-bit errors coming from two of my sensor clusters. When data from them was compared with data from the other three frames, it became apparent that minor mistakes in calibration had caused the sensors to become inaccurate. Individually these errors wouldn’t cause too much trouble, but when compounded they could lower accuracy of my weapons.

My own equipment is faulty? GAH!! What were those mechanics even DOING?!

I quickly drew up an algorithm to compensate and applied it, noticing an increase in Miette’s accuracy almost immediately. Whether due to her skill or my assistance, or some combination of both, she was taking out enemies faster than her three compatriots. In fact, of the six enemies assigned to her, only two remained.

Bwahahaha! Together, we are INVINCIBLE! FLEE BEFORE US, ALIEN SCUM!!

It was in that moment of jubilation that a “PING” in my consciousness let me know calculation of the firing solution on the alien cruiser was complete. I quickly informed Miette of this fact, and she repeated it to Maurice as I sent the file over.

“Holy hells, that was fast!” Maurice responded. “Okay, I’m detaching a comm drone back to the ship!” A small sphere with four gravity fins detached from the back of his unit and began to leave the battle zone.

It didn’t make it far. It was skewered by a massive spine and exploded in a flash.

“Wh-!” Maurice gasped.

Noticing what had shot the drone down, I sounded klaxons in everyone’s cockpit and flashed a red outline on their displays. Everyone’s attention snapped to the cruiser ahead of us.

Blasting forth from it was a massive barrage of dozens of spines. Each was nearly as large as our own Gravity Frames, triple the size of the ones we had been dodging until now. Their increased mass didn’t seem to affect their maneuverability in the slightest. Even worse, the cruiser was blasting them towards us with double the initial velocity that the spineballs did. Each of these projectiles glowed with a sinister red light.

“The cruiser!” Miette gasped. “It’s opened fire!”

“FORM UP, NOW!” Maurice shouted. “BACK TO BACK! DEFENSIVE FORMATION!”

All four pilots backed their Gravity Frames towards each other, covering each other’s rear as they did so. Just as we were nearly together in formation, Genevi’s unit spasmed violently.

Her Frame’s left arm and leg had been skewered by one of the spines. Suddenly bereft of half its reaction control fins, it lost most of its maneuvering capability, and the thrust of the fins on the opposite side sent it spiraling.

“GENEVI!” I heard Miette and Sabina scream, as her Frame tumbled helplessly towards the enemy cruiser.